A Boulder city councilwoman wants the city to take a closer look at the rules for how medical marijuana businesses advertise their operations.

KC Becker -- who was elected to the council in 2009 and ran on a platform of providing better representation for families -- wrote in an e-mail to the rest of the council on Thursday that she's concerned that some dispensaries are hiring people to hold signs on the side of the road.

The council is scheduled to review Boulder's medical marijuana rules in six months. Becker wrote that she wants that discussion to include the "city's ability to regulate advertising around medical marijuana."

Becker could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Kelli Epstein, a Lafayette resident, recently brought the issue to Becker's attention when she sent the entire council a picture she snapped of a person holding a sign at 30th and Pearl Streets to promote the Boulder Medical Marijuana Dispensary at 2111 30th St.

"I grew up in a 'just say no' generation where so much money was spent on these campaigns," Epstein said.

She said her two young children, ages 6 and 8, asked her what the sign depicting a marijuana leaf meant.

"How do I explain to them that this is a place they can go buy drugs?" she said.

Epstein said she wants the city to create stricter rules for when and how dispensaries can advertise to the public.

"If we're going to get into the medical marijuana dispensary business as a city, then I think that advertising needs to be regulated by the city," she said.

Mike Bellingham, owner of the Boulder Medical Marijuana Dispensary, said he is only trying to promote his company.

"I'm set back off of the road," Bellingham said. "If you haven't searched for me, you don't know I'm there."

Bellingham said he previously relied on an "A-frame" sign on the sidewalk to lure potential customers to his shop. But the signs are against city code, and enforcement officers made him remove it earlier this year or face a $2,000 fine, he said.

That's when Bellingham hired Deborah Prowell to stand outside and hold a sign -- which is not against Boulder's rules.

"People wave at her, people smile," Bellingham said. "People ask her if she has any product."

Only a few drivers give her "evil looks," he said.

Bellingham said he doesn't have any cheaper options to advertise his company, and it wouldn't be right or fair for the city to target the medical marijuana industry for special advertising regulations.

Deborah Prowell holds up a sign advertising the Boulder Medical Marijuana Dispensary near the intersection of Pearl and 30th streets on Friday. A City Council member wants the leaders to discuss regulating advertising for marijuana businesses.
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"The market is saturated," he said. "How are you going to get the word out to new people? You have to do something. I don't think we should be singled out for basically being who we are."

Patrick von Keyserling, a city spokesman, said the council could create rules regulating the time, place and manner of advertising. But the rules would have to apply to all businesses, he said, because the city cannot restrict the content of advertising as long as it's truthful.

In Boulder, businesses are allowed to hire people to hold signs in public places or on private property, as long as they don't interfere with traffic.

State law prohibits marijuana businesses from marketing the drug to children.

Boulder resident Melissa Spiers said she doesn't have a problem with seeing signs promoting medicinal marijuana on the side of the road.

"It's just a plant," she said.

Spiers said she isn't concerned about her 11-year-old boy seeing the sign, either.

"We'll eventually have to deal with that anyway," she said, as the country becomes more accustomed to legal marijuana.

Roger "Buzz" King, also of Boulder, said the city would be taking on a "non-issue" by setting rules for dispensary advertising.

"It's not a big deal," he said. "This is America."

But some dispensary owners said there is a line when it comes to advertising the plant -- which remains illegal under federal law.

Lance Smith, owner of the Boulder Kind Care dispensary at 16th and Pearl streets, said he thinks flagrant advertising to motorists doesn't help fight the perception that dispensaries are out to sell the drug to anyone.

"It's awful," he said. "A non-medicinally-based advertising scheme is what's getting all of the eyes."

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